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A SERMON, 

PREACHED ON 






THE DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, AUG. 6th, 1861, 




AT THE FUNERAL OF 




SERGT. WALTER W. RANNEY, 




WHO DIED OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN THE BATTLE OF 
GETTYSBURG. 




BY REV. A. STEVENS, 




PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN WESTMINSTER WEST. 




BELLOWS FALLS, Vx. 
PRINTED AT THE PHENIX JOB OFFICE. 
1863. 



1 



Zhe Duty of iChd^ttansi to times of Rational Calamity. 



A SERMON 



PREACHED ON 



THE DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, AUG. 6th, 1863, 



AT THE FUNERAL OF 



SERGT. WALTER W. RANNEY, 



WHO DIED OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN THE BATTLE OF 
GETTYSBURG. 



BY REV. A. STEVENS, 

PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN WESTMINSTER WEST. 



BELLOWS FALLS, Vi. 

PRINTED AT THE PHENIX JOB OFFICE. 

1863. 






I ilk 



Rev. A. Stevens. — 

Dear Sir : — Having been deeply interested in your Sermon preached upon 
the occasion of the National Thanksgiving, and also of the funeral of Sergeant 
W. W. Ranney, Company B, 16th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, we take the 
liberty of requesting a copy for publication. 

In behalf of a large number of your parishioners. 

IRA GOODHUE, 
EDWARD HALL, 
GRANT W. RANNEY, 
GARDNER PHILLIPS. 
Westminster, Aug. 27th, 186.3. 



Ira Goodhue, Edward Hall, Grant W. Banket, and Gardner Phil- 
lips, — ' 

Gentlemen : — The Sermon to which your note refers, was prepared without 
any expectation of such notice as you have been pleased to give it. It was writ- 
ten in great haste, and has little of literary merit. Confiding in your judgment, 
I comply with your request, and give a copy for the press, hoping the thoughts 
suggested in the discourse may be of use in this time of trial in our beloved land. 

Yours Respectfully, 
* A. STEVENS. 

Westminster West, Aug. 27th, 1863. 






7f 



SEKMON. 



Luke xxi, 19. — "In your patience possess ye youk souls." 

These are the words of Christ to his disciples, for their comfort 
and encouragement in times of great calamity. The times referred 
to were when the temple was to he destroyed, and the Jewish nation 
dispersed. It was national calamity ; when the sword and famine 
were to desolate the land ; when a " man's foes shall be they of his 
household ; " when contention and fear were to be in every place. 
Christ having foretold these things, says to his disciples : " In your 
patience possess ye your souls." The foretold events are a neces. 
sity, for the Jewish nation had sinned greatly and long against God 
that had owned them as his people. In the good land he had given 
them, they had become proud and forgotten the Lord, — forgotten his 
laws ; — had perverted or neglected his ordinances, and despised his 
grace in crucifying his Son in their unbelief. The nation must 
atone for these sins before the world by the blood of her slain, and 
the overthrow of her institutions, civil and religious. Her enemies 
shall come against her ; war with all its attendant calamities shall 
desolate the land. In these times the disciples are to possess their 
souls in patience. 

We may with propriety appropriate these words of Christ for our 
comfort and encouragement in these times of sore calamity that 
have fallen on our land. Such, truly, are our times. There is anx- 
iety everywhere ; mourning is the common expression in every 
place. We are called to-day to realize this fact. We do not 
simply hear of the desolations of the battle-field ; we can sec them 
in our homes. We hear the mourning in our midst. It has entered 
our place of worship. War has taken a noble form from our con- 
gregation ; it has smitten a face familiar here from childhood ; it 
has silenced a lovely voice, that had led us for years in the praises 



of the sanctuary ; it has disappointed fond hopes, and sundered the 
tenderest ties. What is our experience to-day, is the common lot 

of the nation in these times of calamity. These things are the 
necessary result of war. They are the atonement for a nation's 
sins, — the fruit of the most wicked rebellion the world ever saw, 
unprovoked, — conceived and opened to gratify the basest ambition. 
Looking at these calamities on the human side, we are filled with 
indignation for the leaders in rebellion, and instinctively, and prop- 
erly, pray as the Psalmist, " Pour out thine indignation upon 
them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them." — Ps. 69 : 24. 
On the divine side, we see only justice in all the sufferings that 
meet us, and we say, '-justice and judgment are the habitation of 
thy throne." — Ps. 89 : 14. We have sinned and must atone for our 
guilt as a nation. "Without the shedding of blood, there is no 
remission." The doctrine of divine retribution is now a reality 
before us. God does exact suffering as atonement for sins. His 
sword cuts deeply ; it destroys. We must learn how he feels 
towards a nation's sins, and what his indignation is. We may 
learn, too, the estimate he puts upon our nation's life. He gives 
men for it, just as he gave his Son for the work of salvation. The 
gift reveals his love for the work. Just so he now sets the price of 
our nation's life, and tells the worth of civil and religious liberty in 
the offering of our sons and the weeping of our daughters. " I will 
give men for thee," is his language to us. These first born of your 
families I demand at your hands, as an atonement for the nation's 
sins, and the price of its existence ; and the condition on which its 
blessings are to be continued to the world. These calamities are 
not useless in God's government. They are needful to show the 
present generation the worth of civil and religious liberty, and to 
secure these blessings to posterity. This is a general view of the 
calamitous times upon which we have fallen. Christ, in the text, 
tells us how to act and feel in them, — meet the exigencies of the 
hour as faithful servants, patiently waiting the issue. 

Let us attend, for a few moments, to these words of our Saviour. 
" In your patience possess ye your souls. What do they teach us? . 
and what is the application of the lesson to us in these times of 
suffering ? 

I. They teach us not to indulge a complaining spirit. 

There is much in times like these to invite complaint. There is 



5 

danger lest our sufferings be regarded too great, and we in our 
impatience mistake our duty. It was hard for the Jews to see 
their temple destroyed, — the place where their fathers worshiped, 
and their sons fall before the destroyer. But their sins, so aggra- 
vated, vindicated God's ways. They called for the war that was 
upon them, that justice, offended by the apostacy of the nation from 
the God that had blessed them, might be appeased. Are you* dis- 
posed to complain that such and so large an offering is called for in 
the suffering and death that now fills the land ? Just think of the 
sacredness of justice in God's esteem, how much he loves holiness, 
and hates every institution that defies justice and engenders a habit 
of disrespect for right, and defiance of love as a mutual and recip- 
rocal element in society. Do you complain that such a cloud hangs 
over the land, so darkening your prospects, and sending gloom over 
your homes? Remember that it is sin that has separated between 
the nation and God. Is the sacrifice demanded on your part great ? 
Is your home desolated by the loss of a son brother, or companion? 
Remember this is the price we must pay, or lose the blessings inher- 
ited from our fathers. In this suffering and sacrifice of life, we 
learn the estimate God puts upon the blessings of civil and religious 
liberty. By them he calls us to a due appreciation of what we 
have enjoyed, thoughtless, ungrateful, and without responsibility. 
This whole struggle, so fearful in all of its aspects, is the travailing 
of the nation to reach a higher life, socially, morally, religiously. 
The death bands, that have so long held the country blind to the 
great law of love to God and man, could not be broken without a 
recoil that shall destroy multitudes that have hold of them. Every 
death struggle in the nation, on the battle-field, or in the home of 
the Union-loving man attacked by rebel wickedness, is opening the 
eyes of the nation and of the world, to see the worth, and feel the 
efficiency of the principles for which the Puritans suffered in the 
" fatherland," and for which they became exiles to these shores, — 
" All men are free and equal." Man, under the light of the gospel, 
is capable of self-government. Republics have been the subject of 
ridicule by the monarchies of the world. They say they have no effi- 
ciency, no ability to endure trial. They are bubbles blown up by the 
popular will. They will disappoint all expectations. The suffering 
in our nation to-day, in self-defense, throw back this wicked insult. 
These institutions have worth. They are not cheaply sold. Every 



life that is given on the battle-field, is an attestation of their worth, 
and awakens a patriotism before unknown in thousands of compan- 
ions, parents and sisters. 

We have in the efficiency and progress of this war, the assurance 
that republics are not a dream. They have ability to meet and to 
rise above the greatest difficulties. They may be safely intrusted 
vvithjthe rights of man. They will be defended at any cost, and no 
man. black or white shall be pushed off from his direct responsibility 
to God and his fellow-man. God in this fearful war is teaching us, 
and the world, the worth of the principles that underlay our Con- 
stitution, and have made the nation what of blessing it has been to 
the world. We must not complain. 

II. The text warns us against hasty conclusions and narrow 
views in these times of suffering in the nation. 

If we would know our duty, and enjoy the present or have hope 
for the future, we must rise above all local and individual interests. 
The man that lives in such times as these for his own interest 
simply, or acts for his party, must be at war at every point, and out 
of patience all the time. The events that are now transpiring are 
on so large a scale, working results extending through such length 
of time, that we cannot tell their worth, or judge of the wisdom 
of any movement in relation to them, by any interest, personal or 
local. The movement appropriates all present interests to the gen- 
eral good of the present and future. We must wait for the further 
unfolding of the book before we can judge of the price we are pay- 
in-, and say it is too much. Think of the coming generations that 
are to live on this Continent ; — each succeeding covering a larger 
territory, and giving character to those that follow, determining 
their institutions and their influence upon the world. The present 
struggle is to determine what these institutions are to be, and what 
influences, political, moral and religious, are to go out from this Con- 
tinent, in all coming time. Who can tell the value of this, and 
measure the, price by any present suffering or personal sacrifice? 
Can we stop and banter about present ease, and personal consider- 
ation*, when God has given us this land, — has planted the seeds, — 
developed the elements of usefulness, and linked them in so many 
ways to the chariot of his salvation, — has turned the eyes of the 
nations hen; for light, and stretched out their hands to us for the 
bread of life. I pity the man that can shut himself up in his selfish 



interests, and pettishly study to make capital for his party when all 
these elements of usefulness are in jeopardy, — hanging on the issue 
of this war. True, there is suffering in this war, sacrifice of prop- 
erty, comfort and life. But this is a narrow view of the subject. 
What is the suffering, the death and reign of terror that fills the 
present, to the long, endless night, so far as we can see, of misrule 
from ambitious aspirants that will take the control of this Continent 
if our government is a failure. 

I make these remarks in no spirit of fault-finding, but because I 
know many will say, our young friend, who has fallen in the defense 
of his country, has thrown away his life. His rash act in entering 
the army has brought sorrow to many hearts. I appreciate the 
worth of our young friend ; I recall with pleasure his noble form ; I 
love to look, in recollection, upon his intelligent face, radiant with its 
wonted kind expression. But I love more than all to think of the 
cheerfulness with which he met the hardships and dangers to which 
this struggle of the nation "calls her sons. Be it that he did die 
too soon for the fond affections of friends, and the expectations and 
hopes of all. He did not die bantering about his country's call, or 
narrowly judging of his duty by his own safety and ease. In con- 
versation with him, in company with four of his comrades, on the 
evening before he left home for the camp, he said : " I expect hard- 
ships, and to miss the comforts of home, but some one must suffer ; 
I can do it as well as any one." He might have died sooner, and 
endured more suffering if he had chosen otherwise. But this is 
narrow, selfish reasoning. Life is long or short just as it affects 
the great interest of the world. His life was cut short, you may 
say, but it was in death linked with the great struggle for a nation's 
life. It will be associated in our recollection with the defense of 
the uncreated, undying principles of divine and human justice. It 
has effected a larger circle of influences than many years of quiet 
at home. It is connected with events that must unfold with widen- 
ing influence on the world. I say must, for I cannot believe thai 
human progress will be backward. It is by the divine purpose 
directed forward. The reverses, the personal suffering and indi- 
vidual deaths, are accidents. They cannot be the basis of a 
general conclusion about the question at issue now in our land. In 
the reverses we have experienced, we already see the germ of a 
higher life in the nation,— the unfolding of the principles of civil 



8 

liberty in accordance with the great law of love, giving promise of 
a civilization more in harmony with the gospel of Christ. 

III. The text exhorts us to be ready to meet difficulties, and 
make sacrifice to overcome them. 

We cannot expect our nation's life can be defended without diffi- 
culties, or that we can be excused from sacrifices in this time of its 
sore trial. The question is not, is the sacrifice great or small, — is 
it property, or life, or both? but is the government worth preserving? 
Do the principles of the government belong to the world? If so, 
all the suffering of the present war of defense, is our lot by the 
appointment of God. We live in the time when the wicked attack 
is made to destroy the world's inheritance. The conception of 
rebellion necessitated the purpose of annihilation of the existing 
government. No blacker lie ever polluted human pretensions, than 
the one told by rebels, pretending to wish to secede peaceably. 
Announcing the right and purpose to defend it, ignored the govern- 
ment, as a fact. There is no middle ground, no place for compro- 
mise. The rebels know it, and ask for none. They scorn all 
proposals. The whole question is one of fact ; have we a govern- 
ment ? This is the question being settled. The rebellion forces the 
issue upon us ; wc have only to meet it with the purpose of endur- 
ance, in exposure of life, and sacrifice of property and comfort. The 
words of Christ to his disciples, if heeded by us, would have pre- 
vented much of the vacillating, undecided conduct that has weak- 
ened the arm of the government so much. The sufferings are 
severe, w r e know. The sacrifice is great. But it is this, or ivorse. 
We must choose to meet the sufferings in defense of our govern- 
ment, or accept the'fact that we have none. These are the only 
conditions offered us. Our young friend whom we mourning lay in 
the grave to-day, did not expect freedom from suffering in entering 
the army. The perils of our government, and rebel claims that 
threatened all government, brought a deeper question before his 
mind than his ease, his comfort and safety. Have we a place to 
live, a home we can enjoy, property we can use, a government that 
can protect us ? These questions must be decided before we can 
consistently talk about comforts of life, or safety. He promptly, 
iinderstandingly, we think, met these questions. He gave his life 
in settling them. His sacrifice will not be lost. I speak confi- 
dently, for I cannot believe that the divine promise that gospel 



9 

truth shall progress, and the people most permeated by it shall be 
blessed, will not fail. God will see that all sacrifices needful to the 
fulfillment of this promise will be cheerfully made. The world will 
not be robbed of its inheritance, — the right to government. He 
that responds to the call for its defense will enjoy it, or have the 
honor of meeting the call. 

« Were we creatures of the present, .simply, having no connection 
with those that are to live, and no responsibilities to them, we might 
consult simply our own interest, and never feel any obligation as to 
what of habits, or religion, or government, are left for coming gener- 
ations. We might stand aloof from all part in meeting the calami- 
ties that attend the clearing of the way for the incoming of agencies 
that will work a higher civil life to the nation, and rid it of every 
institution that robs man of his rights and God of the worship that 
he claims of every man. Had our Puritan Fathers, in the calami- 
ties that fell on their times, been thoughtful only how they would 
avoid all sacrifice of property, of comfort and life, the world to-day 
would have been infinitely below its present position in materials of 
human happiness. Their sacrifices were great. Many called them 
foolish. But there were principles, political and religious, that be- 
longed to the world, committed to them in the providence of God, to be 
preserved. The world demanded that they should be handed down 
from generation to generation, at a sacrifice, — at any rate handed 
down. They met the responsibility. We see them suffering 
patiently, waiting always in hope, rising above difficulties, counting 
the loss of all things as nothing, if they could only establish the 
right of man to the privilege of worshiping God unmolested, and 
so prepare the way for the universal spread of the word of life over 
the world. 

Their times are ours to-day. The same principles are at stake, — 
civil and religious liberty. The Chivalry of the South are now 
attempting what the Cavaliers of Cromwell's times failed to do, — 
subject the many to the will of the few. The sacrifices of to-day 
are the same as then r suffering, property and life. There is the 
same demand upon us far patient suffering under them. This is 
demanded of us by all that is sacred in our country's history ; by all 
that is dear to us in our quiet homes, and freedom to worship God ; 
by our obligations to posterity, — to preserve and transmit to them 
their inheritance — a republican government. 
2 



Id 

By all those the exhortation of the (ext is urged upon our con- 
sideration. " Possess your souls in patience" in these times of suf- 
fering. Meet the demands of the times without a question about 
the sacrifice required. All that is needful must he given promptly, 
cheerfully, if we would be faithful to the trust committed to us, and 
respect ourselves, and have the respect of the world. 

IV. The text teaches us to have confidence in the God of nation^, 
and constantly look to him for guidance and support in these times 
of national calamity. 

The history of this war is instructive. It teaches us how all our 
interests depend upon His favoring providence, and how surely he 
will accomplish his purposes. We entered into the waf for national 
life. For this brothers and sons and companions have suffered and 
died. But results already developed show that there is a further 
end being reached than this. There has been from the beginning 
an invisible hand shaping every movement to chasten and purify 
the nation as well as to save it. Every victory and defeat has 
shed fresh light on the purpose of God to raise the nation from its 
erroneous view of the worth of man, and his inalienable rights, and 
to make us esteem more highly the government he has given us, — 
and for which our fathers suffered, and to the defense of which they 
pledged their property and lives. 

The same Being in whom they trusted, is now the disposer of 
events. There is no place of confidence only in his favoring provi- 
dence. 

We cannot, and ought not, to conceal from our minds the awful 
sufferings of the nation. They cannot be told. Yet there is ground 
of confidence, and a source of comfort. God bids us trust in him, 
and never say Avhat the perils of the nation demand cannot be done, 
and will not. When I have heard the doleful complaints, and the 
dark forebodings, and confident assertions that this government 
would not survive the shock of rebellion, and her institutions never 
prove their efficiency in civilizing and christianizing the world, I 
have said, " ye of little faith." Has God been mocking the world 
by awakening so many hopes from the means of usefulness here 
developed, but never to be used ? No. God never puts his hand 
to the plough and then looks back. The heavy calamities now on 
the nation are sent to see how much we will trust him. He tries 
us to see how far a christian people will confide in him, and how 



11 

fully they will commit their all into his hands, and like Israel of old, 
go up to battle trusting in the Lord of hosts; that he will make a 
way for his people to pass over all difficulties. There is nothing in 
our government that will be an efficient agency for the good of the 
world,, which he will not preserve. These calamities are needful to 
rid the nation of the ' hay, wood and stubble ' that have hitherto 
encumbered it in its destined work in the grand triumph of "glory 
to God in the highest," that is to spread over all lands in the gos- 
pel. The cloud that is over the nation is dark, and threatens evil, 
but it is spanned by the bow of promise. He will never forsake 
those that trust in that promise. Our safety is in him. We must 
not make league with evil or look to other gods than Jehovah to 
save us ; he will preserve us against all kings that are put forth to 
rule the world ; he will confound all their boastings, and make all 
confess that the Lord reigncth. and that justice and judgment are 
the habitation of his throne, and he will exalt them to possession of 
tlic earth. He will never give up the world to be ruled ultimate- 
ly by injustice or oppression. The storm that is sweeping the 
nation in such desolation, we believe will clear our political atmos- 
phere of the miasma that has polluted the nation, and made us a 
danger to ourselves, and a disgrace abroad. We look confidently 
for a purer love to God in the nation in the future ; a deeper sense 
of obligation to him ; more reverence for his name; a better observ- 
ance of his Sabbath ; a higher sense of our responsibilities as a 
christian nation, and freer and fuller expanding of the gospel of sal- 
vation ; and in every respect a more entire subordination of our 
institutions, civil, literary and religious, to the good of man and the 
glory of God. We see all these institutions now assailed by rebel 
armies. We hear their threats, their boasts and shouts of victory. 
But there is a greater King than Cotton. We may possess our 
souls in patience. We may pray the God of justice to give victory 
to our armies. The navies and armies are his servants ; he works 
by them, giving victory or defeat as may best meet his purpose of 
good. We have a large army and a powerful navy ; we have 
learned and devoted commanders ; we have brave and self-sacrific- 
ing soldiers, yet it is the Lord that giveth us the victory. We can 
find no place of confidence in these times of calamity only in the 
divine interest in the nation struggling in the defense of justice. 
God, the enemy of the oppressor, will be our friend. Were it not 



12 

for this, we might despair for our beloved land ; we might conclude 
that our government is to be destroyed, and we must hereafter be dis- 
membered fragments of a once great and prosperous nation, wasting 
each other by hostile feuds at every point where the lines of com- 
merce cross the boundaries that divide the factions. But He who 
bids us possess our souls in patience, hears the prayers of the 
oppressed. He will confound all that go after other gods and at- 
tempt to rule the world by their King. 

V. The text teaches us not to overlook the occasions of thanks- 
giving in these times of calamity. / 

All the events of this war are adverse if we look at them in the 
light of self-interest simply. The personal interest ofevery one in 
the nation has been crossed in some way, — by the loss of property, 
or friends, or personal suffering. I have said this is a narrow view 
of the subject. It gives us no adequate idea of what has been and 
is now being done in the nation under God's superintendence. Just 
begin with the opening of the rebellion and note the events up to 
this time. The history is dyed in blood. You see untold suffering 
as you make your observations, and hear mourning on every side. 
But this is not all you see, unless you are prejudiced. We have a 
country. The government that has blessed us all our lives, is still 
faithful to its trust, and efficiently defends the interest committed to 
it. 

In this country we find our rights manfully defended. The pur- 
pose and ability to preserve for us and posterity republican institu- 
tions, every where appear. We see our enemies retiring from the 
position they so defiantly took at the opening of the rebellion ; 
yielding their strongholds in the West to our armies, from Cairo to 
the. Gulf, — falling back, pressed by our suffering, self-sacrificing 
soldiers, from their line of defense in Kentucky, and Western Vir- 
ginia to the Gulf States, and forced to surrender their strongholds 
on the Atlantic at Newbern and Port Royal, and the whole of the 
coast of Florida, and at Pensacola. We must not fail to-day to 
notice in our thanksgiving that signal victory God gave to our army 
at Gettysburg. We mourn for the loved ones that there fell, but 
we cannot too highly prize the results of that awful battle to our 
country. It was a victory above all price, dearly bought as it was. 
Had God ordered a defeat to our armies there, no human calcula- 
tion can tell the desolation that would have swept one of the richest 



13 

spots of our country. We thank God for all the favoring provi- 
dences of those days of fierce contest. "We thank him for the com- 
manders in that battle, — their coolness in command, their courage 
and devotion to our country's cause. We thank him for the cour- 
age and patient endurance of our soldiers under the terrific fire 
that swept over them on those never-to-be-forgotten days. We 
thank him for shielding so many from the deadly fire of our 
enemy, who to-day live, defending their country or have returned 
to their homes. We thank him for the thousands of precious lives, 
that were there offered voluntarily upon our country's altar. We 
thank him that he gave our country such sons ; courageous, self- 
sacrificing, and ready to endure suffering and give their lives that 
the world might be delivered from the reign of oppression, that 
defied all liberty in rebel threats to blot our nation from existence, 
and extinguish all the rights that God has kindled here for the 
enlightening of the world. That battle field strown with the dead 
and dying shall always live, rich in the memorials of God's good- 
ness to our nation in the deliverance he there wrought for us. 
Guilty, unworthy of our blessings will our nation be, when she for- 
gets to thank the God of armies for the results of that day. I do 
not pretend to define definitely the results of that victory. No 
candid, patriotic man will fail to see enough to awaken his grati- 
tude, and strengthen his hopes, and make him promise new devo- 
tion to his country. It is the country God has blessed. He does 
preserve it in the hour of its peril. We thank God, too, for results 
of this war now definitely defined as a part of the history of the 
nation and the world. We see as never before, the wickedness of 
oppression, and its inevitable results to any people that attempt to 
protect it. We thank God for the rising public opinion on this 
subject ; for the high position taken by the government in abolish- 
ing Slavery from the Territories, and by its declared purpose to 
protect all its citizens, white or black, from the irresponsible power 
of the oppressor. We thank him for the right sentiments on human 
liberty that have found their way into many of the Slave States, 
and for the friends to the rights of man he has raised up from those 
that have been Slaveholders. Every lover of man must rejoice and 
give thanks for the position of Missouri and Kentucky on this sub- 
ject, and for the sentiments that come to us from leading men in 
Louisiana and Maryland. The whole history of the last three 



14 

years, though it is written in blood, abounds in materials for thanks- 
giving. In spite of all efforts, North and South, to conceal the fact, 
we to-day stand higher than we could have expected if we had 
foreseen the difficulties that have met the nation ; higher in the 
general sentiments on civil liberty ; higher in our religions convic- 
tions and our sense of obligation to God. There is more of a chas- 
tened spirit before him, which is always needful to national pros- 
perity and greatness. 

I. In closing, I would remark in the first place, this day of 
national thanksgiving is most timely. 

It comes in connection with our mourning, yet it loses none of its 
interest. This sorrow for the fallen in battle, tells us the price of 
our privileges, and bids us not forget the Lord in the suecess of our 
armies. When we glory, let it be in the Lord. 

II. The circumstances under which we observe this day of 
thanksgiving, demand our sympathy with the friends bereft by this 
war. 

They suffer in our cause. In an important sense our young 
friend that has given his life in the defense of our country, was our 
son, our brother. Civilly he was such. We must, if we are true 
to the feelings of countrymen, have a part in the mourning that 
meets us to-day. Our country called for the sacrifice this mourning 
family have made in giving their son and brother to die on the battle- 
field. Our safety and happiness as citizens is defended — I may say 
secured — by the life he has given. While we and those who shall 
live after us shall worship in this place, there will be near us a me- 
morial of the price of our privileges. The monuments of those 
that have fallen in this war will remind us that what we enjoy cost 
precious lives. So long as there shall be any in this place that love 
to worship God here unmolested, will there be grateful hearts for 
the lives so freely given to defend the right of all men to that 
privilege. 

III. We may apply our subject for the consolation of those with 
us who mourn for a son and brother who has fallen in this war. 

God asks you, my friends, to possess your souls in patience under 
the heavy affliction that has fallen upon you. It was in the place 
your son and brother believed duty called him, that he received his 
mortal wound. I remember well the meeting with him, in my 
study, the evening before he left your home for the camp. The 



15 

calamities of the war were before him. He did not know them all. 
But he was not insensible to the dangers he was choosing. He 
chose them because he knew some one must, or the government you 
enjoyed and loved, and had taught him to love, would be destroyed. 
His life was precious to you. It was to us all a worthy life, — never 
more worthy than to-day. As the blessings of a nation redeemed 
from the power of an infuriated enemy shall be enjoyed, shall we 
prize that life the more. I commend you to the God of nations for 
consolation and support in your deep affliction. Happy will it be 
for joa s and for us, if we learn by these trials to feel more deeply 
our dependence upon God, and to enjoy our friends, our wealth, and 
our country, as His gifts. 



If 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 703 596 



LIBRARY OF C 



001370: 



HoIling< 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 703 596 



Hollinger 

P H8.5 

Mill Run F3-1955 



